Flamingos feed in a salt lake in Larnaca, Cyprus. Flamingos stop over on the Mediterranean island in the winter, and appear to be in larger numbers this year.

EPA

A white-handed gibbon sits atop a tree trunk at the Tiergarten Schoenbrunn Zoo in Vienna, Austria.

REUTERS

Shrimpfish swim at the Two Oceans Aquarium in Cape Town, South Africa. Shrimpfish are also known as Razorfish and are found in relatively shallow tropical parts of the Indian and Pacific oceans. These fish are nearly transparent and flattened from side to side with long snouts and a sharp-edged belly. They swim in a synchronized manner with their heads pointing downwards.

EPA

A keeper puts a spider tortoise on a toy scale to illustrate the inventory at the zoo in Hanover, central Germany. During the annual inventory, keepers of the zoo count, weigh and measure more than 3,000 animals living at the zoo.

AFP/Getty Images

Crystal Palace's Mascot "Kayla the Eagle" flies in before their League Cup semi-final soccer match against Cardiff City at Selhurst Park in London, UK.

AFP/Getty Images

A panda climbs a tree in its new enclosure at the Chengdu Giant Panda Field Research Center near Chengdu. China released six, young captive pandas into semi-wild enclosures as part of a project aimed at helping the endangered bears adapt to the wild and eventually set them free.

AFP/Getty Images

Eight-month old fawn "Mia" stands in a garden behind a sign saying "Mia crossing", in Ellscheid western Germany. Mia was raised with baby bottle by a family that takes care of the young orphan.

AFP/Getty Images

A baby rhinoceros stands nose to nose with its mother Anna at the zoo in Magdeburg, eastern Germany. The little black rhinoceros was born on Christmas 2011 at the zoo.

AFP/Getty Images

Nepalese female mahout Meena Chaudhary, 33, guides her elephant at Sauraha in Chitwan, just southwest of Kathmandu. Meena is Nepal's one of first two female elephant drivers, who have challenged the traditionally male bastion of mahouts or the elephant drivers.

AFP/Getty Images

A whooping crane flies over the Aransas Wildlife Refuge in Fulton, Texas. Scientists are concerned a devastating drought could hurt the recovery of the 300 endangered whooping cranes that winter in Texas.

AP Photo

Hiding between artificial rocks a Gundi family is presented at the zoo in Frankfurt/ Main, Germany. Gundis live in rocky deserts across the northern parts of Africa and belong to the new attraction of the Frankfurt zoo.

EPA

Penguins are reflected in the water at the zoo in Dortmund, western Germany.

AP Photo

A two month old small anteater climbs on its mother's back at the zoo in Dortmund, western Germany.

AP Photo

An iconic tortoise that has been presumed extinct in the Galapagos Islands for 150 years may still exist, said scientists who believe they have sampled DNA from the giant creatures' babies. The tortoise in question is a majestic creature known as Chelonoidis elephantopus, which can weigh up to 900 pounds and live for a century in the wild. However, they were only known to exist on the Galapagos' Floreana Island and were presumed extinct shortly after Charles Darwin's historic voyage there in 1835.

AFP/Getty Images

A panda climbs branches at the Giant Panda Research Base in Chengdu, Sichuan province. A pair of giant pandas from China's Shichuan province are to be loaned to France after the two countries agreed upon a deal that will see the pair staying in a French zoo for 10 years under a conservation and research programme.

AFP/Getty Images

An African Penguin swims at the zoo in Berlin, cold weather doesn't keep this bird, who is at home in Artic temperatures, from swimming daily.

ZUMAPRESS.com

A young male mountain lion, estimated at 2-years-old, wakes up after being sedated by biologists with the Missouri Department of Conservation, in Centerville, Mo. The cat was captured alive by a trapper in Reynolds County a day earlier, the first live cat caught in Missouri.

AP Photo

A Western Leopard Toad sits on pebbles at the Two Oceans Aquarium in Cape Town, South Africa. The Western Leopard Toad is endemic to the areas of Cape Town and the eastern coastline of the South-western Cape of South Africa.

EPA

A Saint-Bernard puppy plays with its mother Phybie at the Saint-Bernard kennel in Martigny. The Saint-Bernard kennel in Martigny is the oldest breeding centre of the traditional pedigree in Switzerland.

REUTERS

A flock of whooping cranes is guided by an ultra-light operated by an Operation Migration pilot as they make their way across Kentucky, on their way from Wisconsin to Florida. A flock of rare whooping cranes on its inaugural winter migration to Florida are grounded in Alabama while a U.S. government agency decides whether a plane guiding them will be allowed to proceed.

REUTERS

Wild hogs are seen in bottom-land just off Graveyard Road in the Vicksburg National Military Park.

AP Photo

A wild Sumatran elephant is seen roaming the forest in Perawang, Riau province, Indonesia. Only 3,000 Sumatran elephants are believed to remain in the wild.

AP

A seal swims in a tank at the Pieterburen seal creche, north of the town of Groningen, northern Netherlands. Storms that have lashed the Dutch coast this year have created a wave of orphaned baby seals, some so young their umbilical cords are still attached, wrenched from their mothers and washed up on beaches.

AP Photo

A leopard (Panthera pardus) attacks and wounds Pintu Deyan, an Indian labourer in a residential neighbourhood of Silphukhuri area in Guwahati. Three people were seriously injured in the leopard attack before the feline was tranquilized and taken to Assam state zoo.

AFP/Getty Images

A thai visitor feeds dried fish food to carps or koi fish out of a milk bottle at Dusit Zoo in Bangkok.